It is true that the sufferings that Jesus endured during His passion and death were completely adequate to save all souls and ransom us back from what should have been eternal death. His suffering was perfect in every way. Where the problem comes in is at our end. Unfortunately, not everyone is willing to be saved at every moment of their lives because they can be very much caught up in the pull of the world.
This is where our job comes in. You may say what is the point of our suffering if Jesus' suffering and death were complete? But our job to offer our sufferings up is a little different. I'm going to quote the writings of a woman who has taken the name "Anne, the lay apostle." She has been approved by her Bishop and she writes down her conversations that she has with Jesus. She has ten volumes out but this was taken from her first volume. This is her describing our work in offering our sufferings:
"Our suffering is not ransoming souls. That work has been completed. But our suffering is buying precious graces, graces that can be used for suffering souls, sinning souls, hardened souls, dying souls, souls in error, in ignorance, souls being victimized, abused. Souls on the brink of hell can be brought back with our sufferings. We're trading them in for graces. The Blessed Mother, the Mediatrix of All Grace, takes our little offerings and uses them to buy mercy for souls, despite the horrendous behavior of us in this modern world." (pages 39-40 of Volume I)
Does that make a little more sense now? We are not ransoming souls but buying souls the grace to have a conversion of heart. When we offer up our sufferings to Jesus, Mary knows which souls are in most need of grace and she knows our hearts so well and the people in our own lives. We never need worry about where our sufferings are being used because she takes everything into consideration and uses it where it is needed most.
It is a truly powerful tool to use to help save souls and we can all do a tremendous amount of good just by picking up our daily little sacrifices without complaint and offering all things up to Jesus and uniting it to His cross. As simple of a prayer as: "I offer this suffering up to you Jesus as an act of love." Also, at the beginning of each day you can say a "daily offering" prayer and this will tell Jesus that you offer up all of the events of the day- both good and bad- to be used in whatever way needed.
Our beloved St. Therese used to offer all things up to her precious spouse and this was very important in her Little Way. Even as a child, St. Therese would count her sufferings of the day on a little string of beads called sacrifice beads. She knew the value of suffering from a very young age. As she grew older, she took up a special desire to help missionaries all around the world in their hard work of spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth. This is why St. Therese is the patron saint of missionaries but never left the soil of the convent where she lived. Her little daily offerings of sacrifice were tremendously powerful and she did not know how far they helped souls until she reached her heavenly home.
If this is something new to you, just try it. You will not feel any different for doing it, but you will be making the difference for some soul that could really use the graces for their eternal salvation!
Check out the book at Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/One-Direction-Apostle-Thoughts-Spirituality/dp/1933684666/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1473762898&sr=8-9&keywords=anne+a+lay+apostle
This entry explained the reason behind our suffering really clearly - I never understood this concept until now. Thank you so much, Bridget!
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If we consecrate ourselves to the Blessed Mother we automatically give her use of our prayers, sufferings, etc. to help us and others.
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